


Light My Fire

by AttackoftheDarkCurses, thebuildingsnotonfire



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alpha Ben Solo, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - College/University, Belligerent Sexual Tension, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Rey, Praise Kink, Protective Ben Solo, Sexual Tension, Smut, Tropes, Tumblr Prompt, Unintentional Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-10 10:24:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15947432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AttackoftheDarkCurses/pseuds/AttackoftheDarkCurses, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebuildingsnotonfire/pseuds/thebuildingsnotonfire
Summary: Ben and Rey have hated each other through most of their time together in college, but biology gives them an excuse to do some things they've both been thinking about for a while.





	1. Ignite

Their last Fall midterms (ever, with any luck) ended with a bang as Finn and Poe declared that they were all getting drunk  _immediately_  before they all left for Thanksgiving break. It started with a well-intentioned pitcher of sangria, but somehow by eleven, Rey was watching with growing concern as Poe poured a handle of gin in the mix. He'd looked mildly surprised before shrugging once Finn started adding a mix of sugar and whatever juice he'd found in the nearly barren fridge.

It didn't matter much, Rey'd told herself. After all, they were all so trashed that straight gin probably would have tasted fine.

She hadn't intended on drinking much. Maybe a cup of juice here and there to keep her well-meaning friends from thinking she wasn't having fun. Instead, she'd planned to stick next to Rose all evening as the girl got sucked into another odd flirting byplay between her, Poe, and Finn; it'd gone on all Junior year. Rey didn't need to be a Alpha or an Omega to know there was something screwy going on between those three, but apparently they still hadn't done the mature thing and just had the damn threesome she knew all three of them had been wanting.

Of course, before anything of the sort could happen, Rose received a surprise phone call telling her to come in early Friday morning for an interview that would determine whether or not she'd get the internship she'd only been practically pining for the last year.

Rey didn't blame her for skipping their little party, but she  _did_  blame Poe for inviting his adoptive brother, Ben, and Ben's friends, Hux and Phasma.

Hux and Phasma, she could deal with. Hux always spoke as if there was some deep secret he knew that nobody else did, while Phasma had a bad habit of making Rey feel like there was some joke she was missing out on. They were a little off, though, she supposed Phasma was pretty fun to drink with. Overall, they were alright.

The problem was  _Ben_.

The fucking, patronizing, dick of an Alpha.

Of course, his designation wasn't exactly the problem. Poe was an alpha too, and he'd never been anything but kind to her, but Ben was just one of those miserable, stupid  _alpha_ -alphas who probably did nothing but chase omega-tail while he wasn't busy trying to beat her GPA. They guy was probably the entire reason for the whole  _alpha_ stereotype.

Rey had a hard time believing the two of them had grown up together.

She and Ben happened to both be English majors, and, because Rey was just the luckiest fucking person on campus (sans any actual fucking), they'd consistently had classes together since freshman year. Even the one unfortunate semester that she used to take all her random required electives, she'd had class with him. Why he had to pick that semester to take calculus, she'd never known.

Rey supposed that any two normal people would have simply chosen to sit on opposite ends of the classroom and ignore each other, but  _no_ , she and Ben were both competitive. For him, it was second nature - it was basically in his biology, but for her, it was derived from the days she spent as a child, fighting with others in Plutt's poor excuse for a children's home for whatever scraps she could get.

Rey, whether by nature or nurture, was a fighter, and that was apparently a bit uncommon for a Beta, but she'd be damned if fucking  _Ben Solo_ ended up with a higher GPA than she did. She  _worked_ for her grades, and he always seemed to just skate by, perfectly attaining A after A as if smarts were somehow genetic.

After all, his father was  _Han Solo_ , hugely popular and successfully published (many times over) travel journalist, and his mother was the Dean. Whether or not she spoke them aloud, Rey had her suspicions about how Ben got his grades.

They'd been neck and neck, GPA-wise, and both at the top of their program, which was incredibly frustrating because- because-

She looked down at the empty glass she held and then looked over at him, and scowled. He wasn't doing anything wrong exactly…

Unless you count existing.

Which she did.

 _Ugh._  Rey huffed and stomped over to the table where Poe and Finn were still mixing some nightmarish concoction (but it had a liquor content, so  _whatever_ ), and held out her glass until one of them took the hint and filled it up.

"Hey Peanut, you ok?" Finn asked.

She glared pointedly at Ben and snorted. " _Fine."_

"Y'know, you only have to get along for a little bit longer," Poe pointed out, more than a little amused, "I mean, he's actually a really nice guy. If you get to know-"

"He's an  _ass_ ," she interrupted, only to hear Finn drunkenly mutter  _yeah but he's got a nice one too._  Rey rolled her eyes and said, "You'd know if you took a class with him. He's  _constantly_  correcting everything! It's like every time I answer a question he's got a rebuttal, and-"

Ben's voice seemed to come from right behind her as he cleared his throat. She did not  _yelp_ , because she was absolutely not going to give the man that satisfaction, but she may have jumped when he then added dryly, "You know I can hear you, right?"

Goosebumps went up along her neck, but Rey ignored them and faced him with a spiteful, baleful glare. He seemed to occupy an amount of space that was just profoundly unfair as she looked up to him.

"Yes," she hissed. "So why don't you take the hint and fuck off, then?"

She'd forgotten how tall he was. And how soft his hair looked, and  _fuck her, those lips-_

" _Oh,_  is  _that_  what you want?" he smirked.

Of course, that was the moment her usually non-existent libido kicked in.

_Fucking gin. It's the gin, girl. It's the fucking gin._

Rey took a deep breath and met his eyes, saying sweetly, "I was just telling Finn and Poe how I did on our midterm today. I think it went very, very well."

"That's nice sweetheart," he said cooly, and  _what the hell_ , that should not sound so delicious coming from an asshole like him, "why don't you let me know when you get the results. I'll let you check your wrong answers against mine. I'm pretty sure I got another perfect score."

She'd already bristled at the  _sweetheart_  comment, and by the time he was finished talking she was  _steaming_  mad. "I'm willing to bet I did better," she snapped.

Ben Solo didn't grin. Any expression he made was always a slow, saucy relation to a smirk if not one outright. Even so, the smirk that graced his face did things to his lips that Rey knew she was going to hate herself for thinking about afterwards. His voice was cool, controlled, and seemed to resound in her head as he asked, "Want to put money on it?"

A groaning voice interrupted their stare-off, a fact for which Rey would be eternally grateful. Any more and she might have smacked that arrogant face of his.

(With her mouth.)

 _God,_  what the fuck was wrong with her?

"Christ, if it means that much to you, just go into the guy's office!"

Ben, Rey, and Poe all turned to Finn, who'd thrown up his arms to yell at them. "You guys're seriously bumming me out, and I've had like," Finn took a bewildered look at the red plastic cup in his hand, "five of these?  _Shit._  I'm so screwed."

"Yeah, you are," Poe muttered to himself, an aside Rey only caught because of the stupid grin on his face.

Finn shook his head and addressed them once more.

"Seriously," he continued, "you two  _always_  ruin our parties with your stupid fucking bickering, so just be done with it! Put 'em on the table and measu- well, not you, Rey, I guess that doesn't make sense," he blabbered, "but you know Professor Reynolds. The old guy barely knows how to use his computer. When I took his class last year he sat there and graded our tests as people handed them in. They're probably still in his office."

"Huh." Ben folded his arms over his chest and chuckled. It sounded like a basso locomotive and somehow it seemed to reach inside her belly, and quiver. "Getting expelled is a really fun idea, Finn, but I'm sure Rey won't mind waiting until next week to find out that I got the highest grade." He turned to her and raised another of his genetically perfect eyebrows in condescension. " _Again._ "

Rey pushed down the urge to toss what was left of her drink at him (though the thought of seeing him in a wet shirt was-  _no no no damnit, fucking gin)_  and said in as calm and controlled of a voice as she could manage, which basically amounted to spitting needles, "You know, Ben, I think it's time you put your money where your mouth is. You're always such a teacher's pet...so, let's say, a hundred bucks says you won't sneak into that office with me tonight, and another hundred bucks says I got the higher grade."

Apparently their spat had gotten Hux and Phasma's attention, because Rey heard Phasma snort and say, "Oh, shit, this is going to be hilarious. Or awesome. Maybe both."

Hux, being well... _Hux_ , spoke up to say, "Ben, this is silly. You aren't actually going to break into Professor Reynolds' office, are you?"

He said it with his usual drawling, condescending tone that belied his actual Beta designation. The man could fill about as much condescension into his words as any Alpha Rey had ever seen. He just did it in a way that got him job offers, whereas if Rey tried that she'd get kicked of the building.

Ben stared down at her, and not for the first time she noticed his dark, piercing eyes. He worked his ridiculously plush lips (Rey  _definitely_  wasn't staring) together for a moment, and said quietly, "Yeah, y'know, I think I will."

* * *

And that was what led to them sobering up in the chilly November air on their walk to the Humanities building that held the office they were about to break into.

In her ineffable genius, Rey had elected to not bring a sweater, a matter which would probably bite her in the ass later, but she couldn't care less. She'd had who knows how many drinks, and passing out due to overheating in a jacket on their way to finally rubbing Ben's perfect fucking face all over the fact that she was better than him was simply not in the plans.

She probably should have thought more on that matter. Especially since her brain was determined to supply her with viscerally pleasing and vivid images of Ben rubbing his face on  _her._

_Ugh. Stupid libido. Stupid alcohol. Stupid Solo._

Rey gulped. She really should have had another drink or two, but it was too late - now she and Solo were playing some idiotic game of chicken, and there was no chance she'd be the one to back out first. Not because she knew she was right (which she was, thank you very much), but because Solo could never be allowed to beat her. She wouldn't let him.

Phasma and Poe had come along as lookouts since Finn was far too drunk to be sneaky. Hux had laughed at them and left immediately, but not before calling them all idiots in about four different languages and without missing a beat between each. It was classic Hux, really.

Somehow it all led Rey to where she stood in front of a thick wooden door, complete with a frosted glass pane in the top half. She hoped this wouldn't go so far that they'd be desperate enough to break the glass.

Thankfully, Ben seemed to have another idea for how to get in, but she had her doubts about his lock-picking skills. He'd pulled out a wallet, and a card from it (one of many, it seemed), and was jimmying the card between the door's lock, and the outside of its frame.

"My dad taught me," he muttered, seeing her look of disbelief.

Rey rolled her eyes. "That's never going to work," she whispered, only to be proven wrong less than ten seconds later.

He shot her an arrogant, cocky smirk as the door swung open.

Rey bit her lip to stop the litany of swears that threatened to slip out.

* * *

"Have you found it yet?" she whispered, only to get a single annoyed huff for a response.

They'd already been in the room for twenty minutes and Rey was beginning to realize they'd grossly underestimated how much crap their professor was hoarding in his office. It was a miracle nobody had called the fire marshall, because the office was a hazard if she'd ever seen one.

It didn't help that somehow all the mountains of junk, trash, and rubbish somehow provided an extra layer of insulation from the cold of the rest of the building, providing them with an uncomfortably warm and growing heat zone. It was like an igloo made of paper, and Rey wondered if there'd be any scientific merit in studying the utility of such a thing.

And, to top it off, Ben had taken off his upper layer when he'd come inside to find the room like a miniature sauna. That left him in a tightly knit black sweater that might as well have done nothing for propriety's sake because Rey could see every curve - every line of his upper body, and her brain had liberally drunk it in whenever she happened to glance over at him.

(If the looks he was sending her way meant anything, it was that he knew she'd been staring too. Dammit.)

At least Finn had been right about one thing - it seemed the man  _did_  have a habit for grading on paper, and they'd found graded finals for a few of his classes...just not theirs.

Rey slumped against one of the many bookshelves, ticked beyond belief that she'd bothered betting actual cash on such a stupid pissing contest. They'd never really determined what would happen if the tests couldn't be found, but their friends had insisted on a "if you tied, we get the money" clause, which she was now sorely regretting.

 _Never make bets while drunk_. She added it to her mental list of advice to remember.

Obviously the whole "bet" situation had been a massive mistake, and she was about to own up to that-

And then Ben opened his mouth and reminded her of her logical reasoning. "Can't find them," he shrugged. "Ready to admit I probably did better? After all," he smirked, "that's usually the case."

She stared at him, both amazed at the ego and wondering what it'd take to wipe that smirk off his face.

"Alright, look here, you  _asshole,"_ she snapped, walking around the desk to stand in front of him, "I'm sick and tired of your bullshit, so if I-"

Phasma's low whistle - the one to indicate the presence of someone who'd more than likely get them in serious trouble - interrupted what was bound to be the beginning of an angry rant, and Rey felt her blood run cold as Ben's eyes widened imperceptibly in the muted light of Professor Reynolds' desk lamp.

" _Shit_ ," he hissed, "someone's coming...uh…." he looked around the room, probably for a place to hide, but Rey had already considered that, and there weren't a whole lot of options. There were no closets, and they  _definitely_ couldn't both fit under the desk, nor did they have time to debate who'd get that spot. And anyway, under a desk was a  _terrible_ place to hide, because what the fuck were you supposed to do if someone intended to sit down and work? Either they'd discover you and there'd be an awkward moment of  _oh, so, your face is in my junk, that's fun_ , or you'd be trapped indefinitely like that hilariously awkward episode of  _The IT Crowd_ , and Rey was pretty sure their friends wouldn't come to rescue them.

Yeah, the desk was out of the question.

Finally, and possibly with only seconds to spare, Ben bit his lip and said in an odd tone, "So, I have an idea. You trust me?"

Rey scoffed quietly, and said in a haughty tone, "Absolutely  _n-"_

That's all she got out before his lips crashed to hers. Before her mind had time to register the phrase  _Holy shitballs what the fuck_ , Ben wrapped an arm around her lower back, tangled a hand in her hair, and spun them, walking her backwards until she was pressed against a bookshelf. He kissed her ruthlessly, soft lips slotting against her own as the hand in her hair gently tugged so her face angled up more toward his.

She was putty in his hands, and he was mountain and earth, immovable and powerful in an old, ancient way that humanity never moved on from. He smelled like dry paper and an earthy, rich intoxicating scent that reminded Rey of long walks in the park and lonely nights amongst books much like the ones she was pressed up against.

Rey could only comply as his tongue slowly traced her bottom lip, begging entrance. Without a second thought she moaned into him, and she didn't even think twice as a surprisingly large hand lowered to grab her ass.

She really didn't think. That much was clear. In fact, she was acting entirely on instinct until she heard the gently clapping noise Phasma had designated as the "all clear" sign - the cue at which Ben chose to let her go, no longer ravaging her lips with his own.

When they separated, Rey saw that he seemed just as surprised as she did, but it didn't stop her from whisper-yelling, "What the  _fuck was that?"_

After a moment of dazed staring he shrugged, saying innocently, "A kiss?"

"No shit," she deadpanned. "What the  _fuck_ , Ben?"

He shrugged again, and ran a hand through his long, dark locks. "I figured it'd be better to get scolded for making out in here than to potentially get kicked out for breaking in to check our grades. Think about it," he said, "they could have claimed we were trying to change our answers, or give ourselves different scores. At least this way we just seem like stupid, horny college kids."

Rey blinked. That...that was actually not entirely stupid.

"Okay," she said finally, "Just...next time, ask first."

Because yes, there better fucking be a next time, her libido and something else inside her cried. She didn't have time to examine that latter heretofore unexpected part before Ben was speaking again.

"I didn't exactly have time," he grumbled. "And it's not like you would have said yes."

" _That's kind of my point!"_ Rey hissed.

They both jumped at the knock on the door, and their eyes met in panic as they heard a sound that seemed suspiciously like keys jangling.

" _Fuck_. Uh, alright, Ben," she whispered nervously, "I don't have any better ideas. I think you should probably kiss me again."

Ben's gaze seemed to double in intensity when she said that, and little pin pricks of  _something_  rose up along her exposed skin. Arms as large as pistons rose around Rey then, holding her between the bookshelf and him once more.

 _He's really tall,_  her hind-brain noted.

"Sounds good to me," he whispered huskily. Then, with a gentle roughness that was somehow different from before, he reached down with one hand, raised her chin up and pressed his lips to hers.

No hesitation that time, her brain couldn't help but notice amidst the pleasant overpowering fog filling her senses.

Rey didn't hesitate to kiss him back, reveling in how surprisingly attracted to him she was when his mouth was being put to good use. Good use that didn't involve  _talking_. Maybe if he'd just shut his damn mouth more often, she'd consider doing this again.

His hands dropped from her face and slid down around her hips, and seconds later Rey found herself being lifted clear off the ground, sandwiched between Ben's chest and a bare wall. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he deepened the kiss, and her lips moved softly against his.

Ben pulled his lips away a moment later, kissing slowly down her neck while she rested her head against the wall behind her, working on catching her breath. There was something important she should have been doing, but it was lost amidst the lava plume mounting in her ribs and the deep-seated and unerring need to have  _more._

His kisses trailed down slowly until they reached the small patchy area by the nape of her neck that she'd never paid much attention to, and he froze, then pulled his head back to look at her.

When she realized he'd stopped she opened her eyes, her brow furrowed.

"You- you're an Omega?" he asked curiously, his voice sounding strained and full of something that hadn't been there before. He was flushed and there was a thin film of sweat building up underneath his collar. "That's weird, I thought you were a Beta."

His voice took on a questioning pitch towards the end, a confused and wanting tone that made Rey's fingers curl against his back appreciatively.

"Uh, no, definitely not an- an Omega." Shit, it was getting hard to breathe without drinking in more of him. It was a heady, dangerously giddy feeling filling her up, and she both wanted more and to stop it entirely. Her eyes narrowed as she took in his befuddled expression. "I think I probably would have noticed by now."

"But…" Ben's head tilted, looking back to the spot on her neck, "then why do you have-"

His sentence was interrupted by semi-drunken giggles that came from the door.

It was like being doused with a firehose, and yet, it didn't entirely dissipate or smother the flame that had lit in her chest as soon as her and Ben's lips had touched.

"So," Phasma asked loudly, leaning against the open door frame, and gesturing to the two of them, still pressed up against the wall, "Dameron, who bet on November?"

"Finn, actually," Poe answered, sounding somewhere between amused and annoyed. "Dammit you guys, you just lost me fifty bucks. You couldn't have waited a month?"

Rey groaned and let her head fall back against the wall, "You guys seriously had a bet going?"

"Absolutely," Phasma winked. "For about a year. Maybe longer."

She was about to go on a murderous rampage, but Ben said, with quiet strength, "Rey, we can deal with them later. I think you should get home."

He spoke the word 'home' like it was 'hell'. Just the thought of leaving, of dropping out in the middle of this delirious fantasy/mindfuck seemed anathema to her. Her senses were returning with each passing second, but none of them were saying that leaving Ben was a smart idea.

"Home?" she frowned, ignoring the fact that her arms were still around his neck, "Why? We still haven't found the test grades, and obviously," she tilted her head toward where their friends stood, "the coast is clear, so we have time to look."

"Doesn't matter, Rey," Ben said hurriedly, his jaw tightening, "You win, okay? Come on, you should go home.  _Now._  Trust me, please?"

She studied his face and saw nothing but...concern? Concern and something deeper, lurking beneath those eyes.

 _Show it to me,_  her wicked and absolutely still drunk mind sang,  _What are you hiding, Ben Solo?_

It took a conscious effort to assert her rational persona. It hurt more than she expected to do so.

"Uh...okay," Rey said slowly, "sure."

He lowered her carefully to the ground, giving her time to catch herself before letting her go, but he didn't take his eyes off her for a second before moving in, brushing something against the nape of her neck and shuddering as he-

_Did he just smell her?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WRITER'S NOTES:
> 
> Attack: Well this was fun. I love tropes (obviously) and if anyone else wants to just prompt us with tropes, please come bug us on Tumblr! This is our first A/B/O prompt fill, so...hopefully it's alright?
> 
> Onfire: This one is primarily written by Attack, with only minimal editing/suggestions by me. Some of the prompts we’ve received have been A/B/O related, so this is the first one. We’re both rather new to writing these, and I’m still learning more about these dynamics, so we hope you’ll be patient with us!
> 
>  
> 
> [ Onfire's Tumblr](https://thebuildingsnotonfire.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [ Attack's Tumblr](https://attackofthedarkcurses.tumblr.com/)


	2. Ember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the crazy delay! You may also notice that this has been moved into it's own fic. Rather than put all our prompt fills into a single fic, we decided to make "Feet on the Ground; Heart in the Stars" a collection, and add any prompt-fill fics to it. Sadly that means all the comments on chapter one were lost, but this organization makes way more sense. Anyway, this one will hopefully be finished in the next week. Enjoy!

As usual, Rey chose to stay in her small apartment near campus while all her friends and classmates returned to their families for the holiday - and as always, Finn and Poe tried to get her to join them. She'd tried that once, and lovely as they were, there was something wonderful about the campus when it was nearly empty. She'd never been claustrophobic - she'd spent enough time in cramped quarters out of necessity when she was younger that it was all but impossible - but she  _did_  enjoy the almost solemn tone the campus adopted when only a few people stuck around.

She'd spent the relatively short four-day break traipsing around the various bits of the campus she rarely got to see, finally stopping into the new Indian restaurant she'd been meaning to try, and spent a glorious day wandering through one of the local side streets that was lined with used bookstores.

In short, it was perfect _._

Until she woke up late Sunday after 2PM, far later than she'd ever woken up, feeling like she'd been hit by a bus. Everything ached, in a way so visceral and real she thought she was dreaming for those first few agonizing seconds of conscious thought.

She sat up slowly, reaching out to her nightstand for the glass of water she'd put there the night before. Her balance and kinesthesia seemed to have taken unexpected leave and left a blind chimp in charge, and she nearly knocked the glass down. After awkwardly fumbling around she grabbed the glass, guzzled it down, and rested her head back against the headboard behind her, finally noticing the vertigo conga line that was taking place in her head.

Rey felt... _hungover?_  That couldn't be right. She hadn't had anything to drink since the nightmare of a night she'd had before break…

 _But let's be honest_ , a voice in her mind said,  _could any night that involved being kissed like that be called a nightmare?_  She'd had fantasies that kept her less busy and it was only a combined use of her fingers and some frenetic Facebook stalking for pictures of a particular dark-haired Alpha that she'd gotten any sleep afterwards.

She rolled her eyes at that thought, insisting that  _yes it very well could be a nightmare_ when the person kissing you was  _Ben Solo_ , and moaned at the spinny-nauseating feeling that just that simple motion ripped through her. Focusing for a moment, she decided the closest she could get to defining the feeling really was  _hungover,_  but she'd never had one that caused her to wake up drenched in her own sweat or feel like her heart was going to earthquake its way out of her chest.

Whining softly in discomfort, she pulled off the sweatshirt she'd fallen asleep in, finding that the change did very little to help. If anything, the exposure to the apparently freezing temperature in the apartment just racked her body with little trembles of fire along her extremities.

The cellphone sitting on her bedside table began to vibrate softly, and Rey huffed, glaring at it before deciding to pick up.

"Hi Poe," she scratched out, suddenly realizing how dry her throat felt.

He hesitated before saying, "Hey, are you okay? You sound awful."

"Fuck off," she said dryly. Then she sighed, and added, in a much more human tone, "No, sorry, that was uncalled for. I just- I feel really weird right now. I just woke up and  _fuck_  I'm such a mess. I think I've got the flu or something."

There was something sick about a universe where she got sick on her last day of break. Like, whoever distributed good karma had skived off and not bothered to divvy any of it to her right when she could best enjoy herself.

"No worries," Poe's voice came down the line, flooded with concern. "Finn and I just got back to campus. We're dropping Ben off-" he paused, and seemed to speak to the passengers he'd just mentioned, "Yeah, Rey's sick."

Rey heard someone ask Poe a question, and he came back on the line, asking, "Hey, what are your symptoms?" His voice got far away for a moment as she heard him ask, "Wait, why do you need to know her symptoms?" She couldn't hear the answer, but Poe spoke up again, "Look, Rey, just let me know what's wrong and we can run you over some cold meds or something."

She was about to tell them she didn't need any meds of her own (she always kept a fully stocked medicine cabinet, especially since she'd struck out on her own), before she caught the light of the LED clock she had on her nightstand and the time it denoted.

"Is a ridiculous amount of sleeping a symptom? I went to bed a little after nine...that's, what,  _shit_ , that's like sixteen hours of sleep." Rey groaned, and felt her body add an involuntary little quiver to the sound that would make her sound extra pathetic. "Yeah, I'm definitely sick. I woke up  _drenched_  in sweat - sorry, that's probably gross - and I'm just really dizzy and nauseous."

She could hear a commotion on the other end of the line, but she was fighting to keep her eyes open and she had to move the phone a few inches away lest she go deaf.

"We'll pick some stuff up and drop it off in a bit. Text me if there's anything you -  _Ben, chill. Dude, what is your problem? -_ sorry Rey, can you think of anything else you need?"

A memory trailblazed down her synapses and Rey remembered the strength of the earth and the molten all-consuming heat of unfairly soft lips on hers, hard and soft in paradoxical conjunction.

And then, to top things off, the suffusing heat permeating her body, just inches above her skin, seemed to thicken and settle over her form like a skein of discomfort made just for her.

"I don't think so...thanks," she breathed, her pillow suddenly calling to her. Her eyes felt heavy, which was odd when coupled with the feeling that there was something crawling under her skin. "I'm just gonna'...go back to..."

Poe seemed worried, and replied, "Alright, we'll let ourselves in, okay?"

If she answered she wasn't aware of it. She fell asleep to the concerned electronically produced noises of Ben Solo asking if she was alright and her head, clearly under the influence of something out-of-this-world, could only wonder what other kind of noises she could get from him.

* * *

Rey was roused from her sleep by the sound of voices coming from her living room. After a moment of panic during which she thought she had to double-check the loose floorboard so the intruders wouldn't rob her blind, she remembered her sleepy phone call with Poe, remembered she hadn't had to worry about hiding her things in years, and jumped out of bed, throwing her sweater back on.

Her ribcage seemed to violently protest those actions with a small electrical storm of painful twinging. She ignored it as best as she could and glanced at the clock. It hadn't even been an hour since their call.

She...still felt like shit. Wonderful.

Rey took a deep breath and resisted the urge to peel off all her clothes and roll around in the snow that had slowly built up over the weekend. Instead, she trudged to her bedroom door and opened it, sleepily waving at the men who'd each brought a bag so large they might have gotten one of everything from the local pharmacy. Twice.

Annoyingly enough, they'd brought Ben, but she was feeling too miserable to be bothered that they hadn't dropped him off at his place first. They hadn't seen each other since  _that night,_ but as long as he didn't bring up their "experience," everyone would make it out alive and nobody would get their eyes clawed out for being a total asshole.

As soon as she opened the door to her bedroom, both Poe and Ben's already wide eyes snapped over to hers, and a ripple of instinct or maybe emotion crossed their expressions in a flash.

"That's not the flu," Poe swore, backing away and grasping the kitchen counter as he did so. He was gritting his teeth, and the grip he had on his bag shook with clamplike suddenness.

Rey crossed her arms over her chest as she groused, "How would you know? Trust me, I'm definitely sick."

The atmosphere in the room turned hazy and it was a struggle just to stay standing. She was not going to show any more weakness to Ben-

_-A large chest seemed to wrap around her, fill her vision and the question of what it tasted like seemed to ascend in her mind-_

She absolutely did not stumble and grasp at her doorway, and if she had,  _well,_  no one could prove it.

Both Ben and Poe had seemed to notice, though Finn still stood to the side, looking confused.

"You're not sick," Ben said, apparently dissatisfied with being a silent asshole for once. He ran a hand through his hair and said, "I  _knew_  something was off the other night. Did you run out of suppressants or something?"

She blinked. "Suppressants? I don't need those."

"What do you mean?" Ben's eyes narrowed. There was a disbelieving cant to his eyes, an awe that did not seem appropriate considering the concern on his face.

Rey glanced over at Finn, the only other person acting normal there. He shrugged and piped up, asking, "What's going on? Why would a Beta need suppressants?"

"She's not a Beta," Poe blurted out. Rey looked to him, but he just turned around then, clenching the butcher block wood of the counter like it was a lifeline. He fidgeted uncomfortably for a few seconds, before he looked over at the door. "L-look, I'm going to go get some air." He practically ran, grabbing Finn by the collar and bringing him in for a kiss, muttering, "Sorry, I can't be in here."

He left the door ajar as he practically sprinted out. Finn's eyes trailed after his boyfriend, before finally they swiveled back to her. His mouth had dropped open and his eyebrows raised in shock.

After a long awkward pause of even more awkward staring, she rolled her eyes. She turned to Ben and flatly said, "What was that about suppressants?"

He hesitated, and seemed like he was about to say something, but just shoved his hands further in his pockets. His nostrils flared and there was a careful languidness to his movements that reminded her of something practiced or intrinsic.

Rey scoffed."What, no snarky comebacks? Seriously, what's up with-

_\- furnace in her chest pulsed as she raked at his back, and she lapped at the flickering flames eagerly as he then-_

-you?"

Shit.

Shitshitshitshit _shit._

"Nothing," Ben said quickly, stepping away and looking pained just for doing so, "I just- I can't believe you aren't on them. I don't know why you're trying to hide your designation, but  _fuck-"_

The way that word exploded from his lips brought images and thoughts to mind that Rey had only considered on long frustrating nights.

"-Rey, it's pretty hard to hide when you're this close to your heat."

 _There_  was the word. The one they'd been dancing around since she'd come out of her bedroom.

She stared at him, slack-jawed. For a moment it was hard to breathe, and then she narrowed her eyes at him and asked, in as low a tone as she could manage without giving away the mutiny in her body, "What the  _hell_  are you talking about?"

Ben's eyes narrowed and even if it was impossible she imagined his eyes dilating, hyperfocusing on her. "You really don't think suppressants are a good idea? You know, if you're trying to pass yourself off as a Beta, they'd go a long way in helping."

"I  _am_  a Beta."

Ben took a deep breath, and dropped his bag with a muffled thump that strew its contents over her floor. He brought his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose and swore quietly. "You really believe that, don't you?"

"Yeah," she said. Soft. Confused. "Of course…it's not like I've ever presented as anything else."

She'd checked. She'd read and reread books and pamphlets and it wasn't exactly like you could go through public education without knowing in detail how to identify a heat. Hell, just walking down main street would be enough to find some informational material. Omegas didn't stay long in the system, once they presented.

Ben sighed (and part of her very feverish mind wished it were for a whole other reason) before he gave a sharp nod, and said, "Hey, Finn, give us a minute?"

Finn had been watching their conversation like it was an odd, but interesting movie - probably because it was the longest they'd talked without yelling or bitching at each other, and he looked at Rey curiously. He wasn't leaving her alone with Ben unless he had her explicit instructions, and she felt a surge of gratitude for her friend.

She studied Ben for a minute, and finally decided that, while he could use a bit of a personality reboot, he was rather non-threatening. "Yeah. Yeah, it's fine, Finn."

Her friend narrowed his eyes, but turned and slowly left, likely headed to check on his mate.

Ben didn't take his eyes off her, but he did suck in a deep breath when Finn left, closing the door behind him. He seemed to regret his inhale almost immediately, because he blew out a puff of air and sat down on the couch in her living room. It was tiny, made to accomodate Rey, and Rey only, and he seemed to dwarf her surroundings even while sitting down.

He cleared his throat, and said quietly, "Okay, so, Poe said you slept for something like, sixteen hours, and you woke up feeling really hot? And nauseous, maybe kind of dizzy?"

Rey shrugged, and, feeling a surge of heretofore unexpected strength, pushed off the doorway she'd been using as support. "Yeah, I guess."

He missed out on the choral hymn of pain welling up in her bones and her skin, but it was hard to put words to something so descriptive other than  _Ow._

He also didn't mention the incredible oversensitivity to every stimulus and sound and taste - she was pretty sure she could taste Ben's aftershave in the air and there was something intoxicating and potentially illegal to it. If his mouth didn't make the sounds it did, Rey might just have enjoyed the sight before her a lot more.

"And are you," Ben worked his lips together, and his cheeks turned pink, " _wet?"_

 _Definitely_ , but she hadn't thought to mention it before, mostly because it was weird to bring up that topic without bringing to mind other activities, their impromptu and spurious makeout session being at the top of her list. Her entire  _body_  was drenched in sweat, so she hadn't really thought much of the slick that had gathered at her core, beyond a pleasant and diffident tingle that was increasingly demanding attention.

She took the opportunity to step close to him and smack his shoulder. Ben reeled back, not from the blow, but from just her approach, and that wicked and sensual part of her crooned at the reaction.

Focus Rey, she reminded herself. "That's kind of a fucking personal question, don't you think?"

"Well, yeah, but  _Rey_  you don't even have to answer it," he groaned, and  _god_  if she didn't want to hear more of that, "I can  _smell_  you, which brings me to my next question..."

He paused, and then tilted his head, smirking up at her ever so slightly. "How do  _I_  smell right now?" he asked, a dangerous shine in his eyes. It was a look that had featured in her dreams multiple times since they'd last met and somehow he'd gotten even more attractive since then. "How do I smell to you?"

 _-is voice was scalding water on her and the scent of him left her breathless and wanting more. Dry paper mixed with bacciferous walks in the misty sunlit forest and Rey wondered why the middle of nowhere sounded as good as long as_ he  _was there and-_

Where the fuck had that come from?

Rey's jaw dropped as she felt her skin flush. She told her brain to walk away and instead, she took a step  _forward_. "Uh..."

Ben chuckled, and rose from his seat, blotting out the light with his towering form. "And how does this feel?" He lifted his hand and, gently, made small circles against the patch he'd found previously on her neck.

His touch was phosphorus for an already incandescent fire, and she found herself moaning at the simple, powerful touch. She stopped immediately once she realized this, but did not back away for some reason. What reason, her hindbrain muttered cheekily.

He smiled and murmured, with a hint of amusement, "Right, how very  _beta_ of you, Rey."

Her name on his lips did things to her that should have been outlawed the world over. When she next spoke, it was breathy and sending all the wrong (read: right) kinds of signals. "You- you really think I'm an omega?"

"Rey," he rumbled, "I  _know_  you are. I don't know why it took you so long to present, but," he hesitated and said, "there's someone we can call - she's kind of like an aunt, but she's an Omega doctor. I think you should talk to her. At least over the phone...it might not be a good idea to leave your apartment right now."

He stepped away, as if seeming to realize just exactly what kind of situation they'd been walking into.

Rey ignored the searing burn building along her innards when he did, and the ache in her core. This left room for the enormity of the revelation to come pour in, and it was all Rey could do to also turn away. She nodded, and said, "Yeah. Yeah, that'd be good. Can...can she stop this?"

There was a shuffle of movement behind her. She turned, resisting the insane urge to just pull her sweatshirt off because it was  _so_  hot, and saw Ben pull out his phone, a few more steps away. He pressed a few buttons, and he shot her a sympathetic shrug just before putting the phone to his ear and saying, "Maz? Hey, I've got a-" he stopped, and worked his lips together before saying, "-a friend who I think might need some medical advice. She's an Omega, but she thought she was a Beta, and- ...oh, okay."

Ben frowned, and held the phone out to her, explaining, "She wants to talk to you."

Thirty minutes, and a lot of discomfort later (though, thankfully some of that had slowly subsided after Ben surprised her by gently using his thumb to rub the patch on her neck - if it hadn't made her nearly purr, she might have killed him), Maz had announced that she was almost definitely an Omega, likely suffering a reactive heat, due to (Maz chuckled slyly at this part) being in  _close, intimate contact_  with a highly compatible Alpha.

Highly compatible?

_Bullshit._

Rey walked into her bedroom and tempered her reaction, replying calmly, "So, can you stop it?"

Maz laughed at that too, and politely told her, "Girl, if you were my patient, I'd make sure you were on strong birth control and tell you to either find a nice Alpha, or buy a few reliable toys and... _ride it out._  The easiest and fastest solution is to spend a few days with the Alpha who triggered it."

She nearly choked at that, and changed the subject immediately, asking the woman for more general information on what was, apparently, her new designation. There was going to be time for a freakout later, when she didn't feel like she was liable to self-combust for various reasons, but that was future-Rey's problem.

Once she'd absorbed more information than she'd really ever wanted to know, Rey was blushing furiously as she thanked the woman and walked back out to where Ben sat pointedly staring at the wall in her living room, and handed the phone back to him. She wasn't sure what the woman said to him, but at some point she was a bit taken aback, because she heard him mutter, "Yes, very pretty."

Even the tips of his ears had turned red by the time he finally said, "No,  _no_ , shit, Maz, don't tell my mother. No, wait, don't hang-" he sighed, and pulled the phone away from his face, looking down at the screen, -up.  _Shit."_

"What was that about?" Rey breathed.

Goddammit, why did she suddenly sound like she was auditioning for floor manager at phone sex-line job?

Ben looked up at her and answered awkwardly, "Uh, you don't want to know."

After a moment of her glaring at him, he huffed, and said with a smirk, "Okay, fine. She said she expects to meet you over winter break, after I  _smarten up and mate you_. Apparently she thinks this whole situation means we're highly compatible."

She groaned, and dramatically dropped down onto a chair beside him, curling up on it. Apparently either he'd also sat on it in the past thirty minutes or her senses were so far past the point of reality that even  _this_ felt and smelled like him. She whimpered as a staccato surge of pain seemed to ache in her body, and she panted, feeling the vacuous and pitiful emptiness in her gut.

She knew right off the bat that no toy was going to be good enough to fix this.

"Hey, Rey, I'm really sorry about this," Ben said finally. His shyness seemed to war with ingrained instinct as his hands curled and uncurled against the fabric of the chair he sat on. "Do you have someone to help you out?"

"Help me with what?" she asked in a daze, a checklist of desire and pain bombarding her mind. She was just about to ask again when she felt him reach over to trace circles around the spot on her neck. Never directly, not like before, but it soothed and teased her and she couldn't stop the involuntary coo she made as she closed her eyes, leaning in to his touch.

"With your heat, Rey," he soothed, and his voice seemed to reach her nethers despite his distance. "It's starting. Your scent- it- it's going to attract attention. And if it's your first one, it won't be easy."

He was so close, her brain added  _oh so helpfully_ and it was fuelled by hormones, pheromones, lust, and so many other things that shouldn't have sounded so convincing.  _He's already touching you, just imagine his finger, imagine a hand, imagine his body, his hips._

She wanted to tell all those unreasonable aspects of herself to stuff a sock in it, but they just counteracted that they wanted her to stuff herself with something  _else_.

Ben paused in his tracing of her mark, prompting a pained sound of want. She saw him tense at the sound, but he regained control and then asked curiously, "If you don't mind me asking, did Maz say why you might have presented so late?"

Rey didn't reply for a moment, deciding whether or not to say, and took a moment to breathe without the influence of his touch.  _Shit, that was just him touching her with a thumb._ Finally, she sighed, and said, "Malnourishment. I-" she took a deep breath, and explained, "I grew up in a children's home."

The reaction was immediate. He seemed to pulse in place, swell with righteousness as he connected the dots. "That's-"

"I don't want to talk about it," Rey said, not flatly, because there was no way she wasn't affected by everything, but strongly enough for her to feel confident her rational mind was in control once more. That Ben seemed to read her desire and respond to it accordingly, if not happily, only made her smile. He struggled violently against some inner demon before he resumed tracing patterns along her skin.

It took a few minutes before Rey relaxed herself enough to continue the explanation. "Maz said that Omegas who don't get proper nutrition can sometimes take a long time to present, and sometimes when they do, it's only in the case of a reactive heat."

Ben's eyes had darkened at her explanation, but he didn't ask for more details, which was a relief. He just swallowed hard and swore under his breath, then said, "So, this really is my fault. I'm sorry, but...look, you should have someone help you through this." He took a deep breath and asked with a pained expression, "Are you friends with any alphas?"

"Not really," she said softly, before correcting herself. "Nobody single, who I'd feel comfortable explaining this to."

He hesitated, and exhaled slowly before saying, "I don't mean to be presumptuous, but Maz said it'd be a lot easier on you if I helped, so," he took a deep breath and said quickly, "I can help."

Rey blinked and pulled away from his soothing, teasing, maddening touch, as much as it pained her (and it physically did, judging by the cry of agony from inside her chest). She sat up straight in her seat and looked over at him. "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

He ran his hand through his hair nervously, and repeated at a normal pace, "I've never seen an Omega through their heat before - but I can help. If you want."

Rey's eyes went wide when she realized what he meant. "Oh."

This was... _big_.

This was most definitely not the simple touching, growling, caring of the past...one hour? The past one hour had been different from every single one of their interactions so far, with the noticeable exception of Rey's previous impression of Ben catching fire if she counted that night of drunken decisions and great kissing in their professor's office.

It wasn't like she hadn't thought of him that way before. Ben Solo was an attractive specimen and even before that night she'd thought of him like that. Maybe more often than most, because, if she was being honest, if it weren't for his mouth and the attitude that came along with it, the ruthless competition they had served as fuel for many a dream and a fantasy.

She felt her heart pound and something in her just wanted to purr at the thought of him. Him and his broad shoulders - the ones she already knew could lift her with ease, and his lips - the ones that she'd felt against her skin and-

Oh  _wow,_ she felt like she was burning alive.

"Fuck, sorry," Ben winced, "I shouldn't have even suggested that, just, look - please, lock your doors and call one of your friends if-"

Rey made a split-second decision. If she was going to deal with this hell, she might as well have some fun while doing it. Without giving it a second thought, she'd launched up from her seat and climbed into his lap, nuzzling her face against his chest as she said, "It's a good idea."

Ben froze, and his dark eyes stared down at her. "Oh," he said, trying and failing to sound casual, "Uh, yeah...that's-"

Rey didn't let him finish before wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a searing kiss that lit a fire in her she hadn't known existed.

He pulled away after a minute, panting. "Are you sure? I've kinda gotten the impression that you hate-"

"Shut up," she murmured sitting back on his lap as she pulled up on the bottom edge of his shirt. "Just- take this off. You need to not be wearing so much clothing."

Ben snorted, "Yeah, yeah, I'll take it off, but Rey, I need to make sure you're okay with this, alright? Sometimes people do stupid shit during heat." He paused, and muttered, "I'm actually pretty sure that's the only reason I exist."

She exhaled in frustration, and looked up at him, torn between feeling furious and lustful. "I appreciate the need for consent - I do - but you interrupted me when I was literally seconds from ripping your shirt off, so can we maybe call that  _good enough?"_

After a brief pause, he gave a clipped, "Yeah, that'll work," before closing the distance between their mouths, meeting in a flurry of moans, tongues, and teeth. He lifted her straight off the couch and carried her in the direction of her bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WRITER NOTES:
> 
> Attack: Again, definitely our first attempt at ABO. Onfire made this _way_ more thirsty, and I love it. I'm hoping to get this one finished in the next week, but we'll see!
> 
> Feel free to drop us prompts on Tumblr!
> 
>  
> 
> [ Onfire's Tumblr](https://thebuildingsnotonfire.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> [ Attack's Tumblr](https://attackofthedarkcurses.tumblr.com/)


	3. Heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'd say in terms of language this is the most explicit thing I've ever written. Or. At least it _was_ , but then onfire beta'd and made it ten times more explicit and suddenly this is probably my favorite smutty chapter of all our fics.

Every part of her was on fire.

Every place he touched, from the light fingertips that traced along the gland on her neck to the intense, firm grip he now had on one of her thighs. It all burned. Little lava flows of hot magma followed his touch, and it was like he was painting her with flames.

Whoever had thought to name it  _heat_  had sure as hell gotten that part right.

Ben had her pinned to the bed with his body, and the tiny sliver of her brain that was still functioning enough to think something other than _"Alpha, knot, now, please"_ was grateful she'd splurged on a queen-sized bed, because  _wow_ , he was huge. She'd always been on the petite side in no part thanks to the scrounging diet she'd been forced into at multiple points of her life, but Ben was a hale and hearty Alpha, and he seemed to dwarf her beyond just their physical dimensions. She could feel the winding tension under his skin, the strength of a legion hidden under the sinewy curves of his body, and it made whatever thoughts she'd had before seem G-rated in comparison.

His hips pressed against hers, pushing her legs further apart as they wrapped around him, and he devoured her. He pounced on her, not even working up to it, and started sucking at the spot on her neck. The electric light show behind her eyes started immediately, and she almost came just from that.

Ben's tongue pressed against her gland, and she shuddered against him, letting out a low, panting gasp that didn't come even close to describing the sensation she was feeling.

Rey reveled in the feeling of his mouth on her as she raked nails down his back and his hips continued to grind against her. After a brief moment of clarity when she wondered why she felt so restricted, she was more than a little disappointed to remember that they were both still fully clothed.

"Ben," she breathed, "if- if I'm an Omega, does that mean you'll uh-" Ben moved away from her gland, nipping at the area around it, eliciting a yearning yelp from her as cool air touched her suddenly slick skin.

A chuckle emerged from him as he continued his tasting of her. It was low, reverberant and seemed to meld with her lungs as he took a daring suckle at a spot just close enough to her gland to make her clench.

He seemed to smile even as his lips moved on to other unclaimed parts of her neck, whispering, "What is it...little Omega?"

It seemed a little ridiculous she had the capacity to blush after everything, but she did. She cleared her throat and ignored the instinctive internal command to call him ' _Alpha'_ , and then asked, "Are going to knot me?"

He stopped sucking and kissing along her neck. She felt the whine build and threaten to escape, but then came Ben's huffs of warm breath against her jaw as he raised his mouth up to speak against her voice box. "Yeah, I think that's generally part of the whole  _heat_  thing," he said.

There was no reason his words alone should have felt as good against her skin, like rain after a hot day, but the promise in them sent a storm of anticipation down her body. There was an emptiness in her, hungry and unrelenting, and she could feel her reason start to waver in the presence of a virile and willing Alpha, separated only by the fabric of their clothing.

He seemed to read the anticipation in her, and ground his hips against hers once more, and she could feel him beneath everything, and suddenly whatever words she could come up with all found root in the argot of sex and fucking.

"Good," Rey gasped as he resumed his tasting of her skin. She nodded and reached down to pull off her sweater. "That's good, because it's starting to seem like basically the best idea ever."

She lifted her now useless sweater and tossed it somewhere else. Ben looked down at her, taking precious seconds to admire her form, making firm eye-contact with her now-bare breasts. When he next spoke his voice was husky and bespoke a desire just as deep-seated as hers. "So we're definitely doing this, then?"

Rey took a moment to stare up at him incredulously. "Did me taking off my clothes not make that clear? You realize we're in my bed, talking about you knotting me, right?"

"Fuck you're beautiful," he muttered under his breath, and damn if that didn't call up a spring of pride as she watched him stare down at her. Then he seemed to snap out of the spell he was under, and snorted at her words. "Uh, yeah, good point. Sorry, this is still a little surprising. I just-"

She was starting to get mildly fed up. He'd been doing so well when he hadn't been talking so much. His mouth was moving, but words were coming out of it, and she was  _fine_  with the fact that it was moving but it really fucking needed to be back on her.

 _Wow_  the guy really did have an amazing mouth.

"Okay," she interrupted, "let me make this as clear as I possibly can. You can do whatever you'd like." She felt the physical reaction in him at her words as he bucked against her and she moaned, nearly losing herself into the sensation of feeling someone so mighty against her body.

"Hnnng...Rey," he gritted out, looking her up and down, breathing heavily with each roving glance over her body.

She cooed, reaching up with a hand and beginning a complicated tracing pattern against his own neck. She continued, "Right now, I'd really prefer it if you chose to take your clothes off and fuck me against a wall or into this mattress or  _whatever_  - as long as you stretch me, knot me-" she moaned in unison with him when she said the word, and made sure to glide over his gland with the barest of fingertips "-and then repeat that process until I have trouble walking or until my heat ends. Whichever one involves more sex is fine with me. Does that sound alright to you?"

His jaw had dropped about halfway through that, and his eyes had darkened by the time she was done talking. He let out a low growl and then suddenly his mouth was back on her, teeth grazing against her gland, and her breath caught at the sensation.

"Little Omega," he said, voice tightly controlled with endless desire and restraint, and she quivered at the newfound title, "Do you understand what you're doing to me?"

His breath hovered over her gland once more, and one of his hands came up to lift her chin up, and expose more of her skin to him. Once again he lowered himself and deigned to brush against her sensitive spot with his teeth. She couldn't stop the keening noise she released, and she found herself reaching up to run her hands through his hair and pull him down for more.

"Oh, holy-  _Why_  does that-" Rey gasped, " _Fuck_ \- Ben, please keep doing that."

Ben froze and, despite her insistence, easily pulled back, eyes wide as he took a deep gulp of air. "I probably shouldn't have done it to begin with," he admitted, switching to safer spots as he began exploring her uncovered torso. She didn't mind, his whole body felt amazing against hers, moving unison and responding to every twitch, though the mind-consuming shock of nothingness and need was beginning to overwhelm her. He continued his worship of her, heedless of her whimpers and gasps as he left a mosaic of kisses along her body. In between each featherlight offering, he said, "If I do it again, I might bite you. I have a feeling you don't  _really_  want me to do that."

Actually, right now, that's exactly what she wanted, and her whole body was screaming at the fact that he'd pulled away. She let out a whine, and after a moment of her body debating whether to make out with him or try to get the rest of their clothes off, she settled for dealing with her clothes, and thankfully Ben seemed to get the idea. He sat back and pulled off the pajama pants she wore, huffing in annoyance when he noticed she'd also worn underwear. He tugged those off too, practically snapping them with casual alpha strength, and got started on his own clothing.

Less than thirty seconds later, Rey purred and sighed in relief as his naked body moved against hers while his tongue plundered her mouth. She felt his cock nudge against her entrance and she'd always thought she'd need considerably more foreplay, but she was soaked, and  _fuck_ foreplay. "Need you," she panted against his lips, "in me-" he attacked her mouth again, and thanks to her newfound impatience, she reached down and took him in her hand to get things started herself-

Rey pulled back away from his lips and groaned, "Oh, wow, you're…uh,  _proportional._ "

Ben paused, seeming confused by the fact that they'd stopped kissing, and then caught the meaning of her words. He grinned cheekily, then covered her hand with his own as he eased himself into her slowly.

Her eyes went wide at the feeling. Her sexual experience was a bit limited, and she wasn't sure  _what_  she'd expected, but  _this_  was something else. It started slow, a little like waking up, except waking up didn't send her body into uncontrollable shudders with each passing second. Ben entered and stretched her deliciously, agonizingly slow until she was more full than she'd thought possible, and-  _oh_ , he was still going.

Tightening his grip around her waist, Ben bent down to run his tongue around her chest, stopping at each of her nipples to roll them in his mouth, grazing them carefully with his teeth as she moaned. In one quick move, he thrust the rest of the way in and Rey's back arched reflexively, pushing her breasts further up, in his direction.

His words caressed her just as his hand did as he murmured, "So fucking gorgeous, Rey. You're even sweeter than I expected...just-" his lips returned to her skin as he said, "I could just  _eat_  you."

She cried out as he bit down on the skin at her chest, and he immediately looked up at her with worried eyes. "Was that too hard?" he breathed.

"No, no - definitely not," she murmured, "that feels amazing. Everything feels amazing."

He let out a sigh of relief, and then smirked at her, "Amazing, huh?" Before she could answer, he drew his hips back, and his cock dragged against a spot in her that sent incredible tingles up her spine, just before he drove back into her, causing another gasp to fall from her lips.

"Yes," she groaned, no longer caring that she was only making his ego inflate, "Yes, amazing. Now shut up and keep going, okay?"

Ben snorted, and replied, "Whatever you say, sweetheart." Then his voice got a bit deeper as he lowered his head to kiss a line down her neck and over her gland, "You're being  _such_  a good little Omega for me, I guess it's the least I can do."

 _Good little Omega_.

Rey nearly came on the spot.

Holy shit, what was going on with her brain? The words seemed heavy in her mind, heavy and ladened with generations of pleasure and endorphins and hitting all the right notes.

She didn't bother thinking about it too much, and instead begged, "Harder, Ben. Please, please go harder."

He nodded and slid almost all the way out of her before slamming back in, repeating the motion and falling into a harsh rhythm as he leaned down to capture her lips in a surprisingly gentle kiss. "Rey, sweetheart," he cooed against her lips, "you feel so good. So wet.  _So_  tight."

There were words coming out of his mouth, her brain noted. Good ones, now. The right ones.

"Wanna feel you come on my cock," he continued, "Wanna feel you as I  _fuck_  you 'til you come."

Rey couldn't have agreed with that idea more, and lifted her hips to meet him thrust for thrust as he continued whispering filthy things in her ear.

"Fucking incredible, my  _little_  omega.  _Mine._  Wanna hear you scream for me."

If she had any breath left she would have. Words seemed to flit through her mind, all wonderful and great and all paling in comparison to Ben's own. One word stood out the most though.

"Mine," Ben continued without noticing, sending quakes of shuddering tingles throughout her body with each syllable. "I'm gonna' fuck you so well, little omega. Fill you up and give you what you want. What you need."

His next thrust went in particularly deep and Rey's mouth dropped as the feeling seemed to transcend everything she'd felt.

"Will you be a good little omega and come for your alpha?"

_Alpha._

He hovered over her, filling her, giving her, pleasing her, and  _oh_  did she feel him in her. She couldn't tell where she ended and he began and she wanted to know. She wanted to dive in the feeling, explore it, luxuriate in the butterfly storm of good, good,  _good,_  that her mind couldn't find any other way to define.

(Her brain didn't seem to have enough focus left to process his comments, so she stored it for later consideration.)

"Yes," Rey said breathily, only not saying the title he deserved because she reached a breathless pitch courtesy of him rubbing against her gland with his face. " _Wow_ , Ben, you fill me up  _perfectly_."

He hummed against her neck and somehow his pace increased as he rolled his hips harder and harder against hers. A hand trailed down her body and started sliding slick over her clit. Rey quivered as he said in a low, hushed tone, "You take me  _so_  well. So  _fucking_  good, Rey, I've wanted to do this for so long-" he dropped his head to her shoulder and groaned, then picked up the pace of the fingers that were gliding over her clit.

_Wanted to do this for so long._

"Come for me, sweetheart," he ordered. "Come for your alpha. Come on my cock."

_Your alpha._

Rey felt something tightly wound in her get even tighter, threatening to snap entirely and throw her over the edge, but it didn't happen until he leaned back down and nipped softly at the spot on her neck.

Alpha. He was  _her alpha._

The winding constriction around her heart seemed to melt and the dam released, the title firmly entrenching itself in her soul and filling her in a way that she never had before. Her breath hitched as the realization began and she began rattling it in her mind, delighting in the various ways it could be said, and before she knew it, she was calling it out.

"Yes please. Alpha," she babbled, reveling in the sound even to her own ears, "Alpha, please. I'll be good, Alpha. Yours. I'm yours. Please bite me, bitemeplease _pleasebite_ -"

Instead he licked at the spot and grazed it gently, and that pushed her over the edge, the coil in her belly bursting, and he caught her lips in a burning kiss just as she was about to call out his name again. Something expanded in her, spurring her orgasm further and further until she'd found a level of bliss she didn't know existed.

The feeling of fullness his swollen knot caused was unprecedented, and it took the last of her breath away. Ben shuddered and nuzzled his nose into the crook of her neck as he relaxed against her, and chills wracked her body with every pulse she felt as he filled her with cum. It was enough to make her body feel like a livewire, and as his fingers continued to slowly circle her clit, she shivered, and said, "Ben, that feels-  _fuck_ , I- I'm not sure I can take much more."

He looked down at her, studying her face carefully as he removed his fingers, slowly sucked her essence off them, and then reached up to caress her face. "It's okay, sweetheart," he crooned softly, "You're okay."

Rey let out another gasp as she felt him continue to pulse inside her, and murmured, "It's so overwhelming. I've never felt anything like this." She felt a tear spill out, and his dark eyes met hers, just before he lowered his head to kiss at the tear's track. His soft kisses landed all over her cheek, eventually traveling down to her mouth, where he kissed her slowly, and deeply.

Ben pulled away after a minute and asked quietly, "Hey, are you alright?"

She recognized his concern for what it was - an alpha wanting to protect his omega, and it warmed something inside her. Her body was still caught in the throes and the realization sent another rocket of sensation that reached from the end of her toes to the tips of her fingers. She caught her breath and met his concerned eyes, then wrapped her arms around him in a sort-of hug, and nodded, "Yeah, I'm okay. It's just...a  _lot._ "

Tightening his grip around her, he rolled them to their sides, explaining, "We're probably going to be stuck like this for a bit, and I figured it'd be more comfortable if I'm not on top of you."

Rey nodded sleepily, and curled up against his chest, humming contentedly as he held her close, and nestled against her before finally pressing his lips to her forehead. He pulled a blanket up around them, and the last thing she heard before drifting off into a nap was a soft chuckle, and a rumble of, "Call me crazy sweetheart, but I kinda hope you're still asking me to do that in a few days."

By the time she woke up, no more than an hour later, it felt like someone had taken a torch to her skin, and all the words she'd been struggling to hold on to and understand had become part of a fever dream she could barely remember. She started writhing in her alpha's arms, and he wasted no time, quickly flipping her onto her stomach. He lifted her hips, and finally thrust into her in one, swift move. He leaned over her, carefully pressing his front to her back as he held her close and whispered praises into her ear.

Rey didn't bother thinking - she simply trusted Ben and let him push her over the edge again and again with his body and his words. Something in her knew he'd be there to catch her each and every time.

He lit her veins on fire, and she was all too happy to burn for him.

* * *

At some point, probably halfway through the second day of her heat (though, Rey had lost track of time sometime after the first half-dozen rounds of insanely good sex), she woke up to a warm, but empty bed. Through a lifetime of mental perseverance and steel wrought will, she managed to stay calm for almost a full minute before the panic set in.

He'd left. He'd left her alone, and her heat hadn't even finished. No matter what she'd ever thought of him, she'd never really thought he'd  _leave_.

Cold dread and cruel panic clawed at her throat and her chest heaved as she tried not to let the tears well in her eyes. The room, once so small and barely able to contain them - contain Ben - now stretched up and around her, reaching for the sky and swallowing her in her too large bed.

She should have known better. It only took a matter of time for people to leave, and  _why_  had she ever thought Ben Solo would be different?

Rey sniffed quietly, and curled up into a ball in the nest of blankets on her bed, waiting for the next wave to start. Everything smelled like him, and she wasn't sure if that made things better, or worse. She wasn't even sure how she'd handle the next wave when it came, especially since Ben was-

"Hey sweetheart," his voice said quietly from the doorway.

Blinking, she rolled over and looked up to see him standing there, his sweatpants hanging low on his waist. He was carrying a few things, and walked over to sit next to her on the bed. "Scoot over," he said gently.

"When Poe called you from the car, I had a feeling it had something to do with your heat, and I bought some stuff I thought you might need. I hadn't anticipated helping you through it, but…" he grinned, and dammit if he didn't look gorgeous, like some misplaced supermodel, "Well, I'm definitely not complaining."

He put a huge plate of cut fruits and cheeses between them, and handed her a large bottle of water, but she didn't stop staring at him in awe. Ben seemed to notice, and tilted his head in confusion.

"Sorry," she said, voice still thick with emotion, "I just- I thought you'd left."

Ben sucked in a breath and instinctively reached out with a hand to rub at her gland soothingly, and she was all too happy to lean into his touch.

"No, of course I didn't leave." He seemed horrified at the idea, and said, "Leave you in the middle of your heat?  _Rey_ , why would you think I'd do that?"

She shrugged, and, because the past few days had already overturned her world view a dozen times over, shakily confessed, "People tend to leave me."

Recognition flashed in his eyes as he asked quietly, "People like your parents?"

"I don't really want to talk about it," Rey murmured, putting the plate aside to climb into his lap. There were bruises along his skin, where she'd nipped and bit him at every exposed spot, and the sight of them comforted her, because they were physical proof that she hadn't dreamed it all. "But simply put, yes. And for the record, I'm very glad you're still here."

His arms wrapped around her, and he pulled her further against him, "I'm glad I'm here too." He paused, and glanced down at the plate she'd set aside, "Sweetheart, you should eat."

Rey ignored him, and nuzzled her nose into his neck while he chuckled, and said in a low, playful voice, "Am I gonna have to feed it to you?"

Pausing, she sat back a bit in his lap, resting against the arms that were clasped around her lower back, and smiled before she nodded.

"Really?" Ben's dark eyes glimmered, and he let out a low approving noise, somewhere between a hum and a growl. "Very well, my little omega. Anything you don't like?"

It was astonishing the difference two days could do to change the significance of a few words. Before, Rey never would have found the terms endearing or arousing, and now with a barely a thought, her alpha brought to mind the echo of their actions, and her body demanded a repeat performance.

She shook her head and met his eyes, knowing that he'd seen the unconscious reaction he'd been looking for her.

"Hmm," she glanced down at the plate, a beautiful spread of cheeses, strawberries, pineapple, grapes, and apple slices. "It all looks good. Trust me, I've never turned down food." She smiled up at him and said, "Y'know, in a few days I might try to claim I never said this, but you're very good at this - the whole protective, caretaking  _Alpha_ thing. And uh... _wow_ , some of the things you've said." Rey bit her lip, and added, "I didn't realize I'd be so into that."

Ben smirked and picked up a strawberry, keeping one arm tight around her while he raised the red fruit to her. She kept her eyes on his when she sucked it into her mouth and took a bite, making sure to moan  _just_  enough to get his attention, just in case she didn't already have it. He groaned as Rey took the strawberry from him, placed it back onto the plate, and took ahold of his hand, sucking the juices off his fingers one at a time, releasing each of them with a  _pop_.

" _Fuck_ , Rey," he muttered, "keep doing that and neither of us will end up eating any of this." He chuckled again, and shook his head, "C'mon, sweetheart, work with me here. I'm just trying to take care of you."

He really didn't grasp just how strange that was, didn't he?  _Bless this man,_  she thought.

"Alright, alright," Rey sighed. She didn't get out of his lap, but she finished the strawberry, grabbed a few grapes and started munching. Once she started eating, she realized she was actually quite hungry, and continued snacking until they'd cleaned the plate. At some point her mind wandered and she spent half a minute wondering when the  _sweetheart_  pet name had stopped annoying her. She wasn't sure when  _that_  had happened, but when she hadn't been paying attention, it'd become less of a dig and more of a...well, she didn't know what to call it, exactly.

Whatever it was, she liked it.

Ben seemed to relax after she'd had some food, and once he noticed her considering him carefully, he said quietly, "Sorry if I'm being weird. I know you don't want to talk about it, but what you said…" he paused, "What you said about malnutrition being the reason you never presented. It uh- that really bothered me. I'm not trying to get you to talk about it, but it just…" he shrugged, "I don't know, I guess those fun  _protective Alpha_  instincts kicked in. If you ever want to talk about it, I'll listen."

"Oh," Rey hesitated before a soft smile spread on her face, "Well, obviously I'm okay now, but that's very sweet." Then she snorted, and teased, "Who knew you could be so nice?"

"I'm perfectly nice," he grumbled, "you're the one who's always been so competitive. I just got used to playing along."

"Of  _course_  you'd think competition is fun," Rey said, half to herself, as if he hadn't just casually revealed the entire reason for their rivalry boiled down to a whim, "I bet you thought we were flirting too."

Ben coughed and looked away.

"No!" she said, feeling a gleeful sort of smile creep up on her, "No, really? You thought me challenging you all these years, every stare-off, every argument...was flirting?"

"In my defense," Ben began, and then seemed to sag in on himself, realizing he had nowhere to hide. He looked around, as if searching for another topic to distract her. "Why  _are_ you so competitive, anyway?"

Rey shrugged, "I'm here on scholarship. If I don't keep my grades high, I won't be able to afford tuition. Plus, I'm used to competing for things." She paused, and huffed, muttering, "Actually, I'm used to fighting for what I need."

She could see exactly when things clicked in his mind, because his eyes grew terrifyingly dark.

"Fighting for things you need? Things like food?" he asked, a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Yes," Rey answered honestly. "I haven't had to in a long time, though, so don't worry about it, okay? You can even ask Finn or Poe. I'm pretty sure they've both seen me eat an entire pizza in one sitting."

That seemed to placate him, and he let out a low breath and relaxed. After a moment of somewhat awkward silence, he said, "Wouldn't it make more sense for us to study and work together instead of competing?" His playful smirk finally returned, and he winked, "Study breaks could be fun."

"That's probably true," she agreed, chuckling. "Why don't we see how we feel after this heat ends, huh?"

After a moment he nodded, and said, "So, at this point we've pretty much seen, touched and uh…" his voice low and suggestive, " _licked_ , every part of each other, and," he huffed, "I don't even know your favorite color."

Rey paused, and then threw her head back in laughter, breathing through bursts of it to say, "Oh- my-  _god._  You're right."

Ben was grinning right along with her and let her catch her breath before he stared into her eyes, and said, "I tell everyone mine's black, but I'm starting to think it's hazel."

"Oh?" she looked at him curiously, a smile still on her face as she asked, "What makes you say that?"

His cheeks turned pink, and he reached up to cup her face, and slowly pulled her closer. She felt his breath on her lips as he whispered, "Your eyes," just before giving her the slowest, sweetest kiss she'd ever had.

If Rey took anything away from this whole  _first heat_  experience, it would be that Ben Solo's mouth was made for kissing. His lips were soft, and plump, and they worked over hers  _oh_ so gloriously as he worshipped her mouth with light sucking and the occasional careful bite. She lost herself in his kiss, letting the slow movements of his lips over hers take over every waking thought that passed through her mind.

When they finally broke away, Rey rested her forehead against his, and he asked, "What about you?"

"Brown," she breathed, without hesitation, "Definitely brown." She looked up at him and continued, "The sort of brown that's dark, and warm, and deep, and has flecks of gold in it."

She could feel Ben's heart pound under her fingertips as he gathering her against his chest, his eyes searching hers as he said softly, "Rey, sweetheart, I- I think I might l-"

Before he got the chance to say whatever he'd planned to say, she'd tilted her head to kiss him again, thoroughly enjoying the taste of strawberry and pineapple that she found on his tongue, and she pawed at his sweatpants until he pulled them down far enough to pull himself out. Finally, Rey sank down on him and hummed, breaking the kiss to rest her head against his shoulder.

Where they'd been fast and rough before, everything between them now was slow, and gentle. Their lips met in languid, unhurried kisses, and Ben's hands ran slowly, all over her body, holding her tightly to him. They rocked against each other, and Rey sighed as she eventually nestled against his chest.

Some part of her realized she'd never been so comfortable, so happy, or so ridiculously attracted to someone, and as another orgasm rushed through her system, their eyes met again.

Rey caught herself before she could say three little words she'd never expected to want to say to Ben Solo.

* * *

It ended on the third day.

It had been shorter than she'd expected, and realistically, that should have been a relief. After all, they'd already missed a couple of days of classes and people were probably getting worried about them (though, based on the playfully lewd texts she'd received, Rey was pretty sure her friends had a  _very_ good idea of what they'd been up to) but for some reason, she was disappointed.

Despite the fact that it had ended, they made love (and normally, that was a term Rey would have rolled her eyes at, but she couldn't think of any term more applicable for how intimate things had gotten between them) again that morning, and as he moved slowly over her, peppering kisses across her shoulders and chest, murmuring sweet words of affection and adoration, his lips eventually reached the gland on her neck, and she found herself whispering, "Go ahead. Please."

His hips stilled, and he pulled back to look down seriously at her, "Rey, you know what you're asking for, right?"

"I know what I'm asking," she said quietly, "and I  _know_  it sounds insane, but here's the thing - my heat's over, and I don't hate you. I don't think I've ever hated you, Ben. Kind of the opposite, actually," she admitted. "You just- you lit this  _fire_  in me - one I didn't know existed, and up until the last couple of days I funneled that into anger. I'm not sure why. I think, maybe, I was just afraid of what it really was."

Rey paused, and looked at him nervously as his eyes widened, and then she decided to continue before she lost the nerve. "But there's really not much point in being afraid of that now, because suddenly I'm a whole lot more afraid that this was just a few days of sex for you, and Ben, now that it's over I...I don't want you to leave," she admitted vulnerably.

"I don't want you to leave," she repeated softly, running her fingers through his hair. "Ever. So,  _please._  Please, tell me this has meant something to you."

At some point while she'd been talking, his mouth had opened in surprise, and those stunning brown eyes had started scanning her face carefully. Rey closed her eyes, and tightened her arms around him, hoping he'd make the decision to do it, and she waited for either rejection, or relief. His hips started moving against her again, at the same careful pace he'd been using before, and her breath caught as she felt his hair brush against her shoulder, over  _that_  spot. When she felt his lips lower to that area, and when his teeth finally sank into her, tears formed in the corners of her still-closed eyes.

Ben's tongue soothed over her broken skin, and he said softly in her ear, "Of course it meant something, Rey. It meant  _everything."_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WRITER'S NOTES:
> 
> Attack: Bless onfire's filthy mouth. I really have nothing else to say. We did up the chapter count, btw.
> 
> Onfire: Any child of Han and Leia's is absolutely going to think getting angry, huffy, red in the face and then confrontational is basically really overt foreplay. Honestly, Ben probably thought Rey was coming on to him and was really confused when no one seemed to get that she was basically propositioning him for sex since day one. Dude's all tied up in knots. Pun intended.
> 
>  
> 
> [ Onfire's Tumblr](https://thebuildingsnotonfire.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> [ Attack's Tumblr](https://attackofthedarkcurses.tumblr.com/)


	4. Burn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's almost done - I'm capping it at five chapters. I was _supposed_ to only be 2...onfire and I seem to have a habit of doubling (or more than doubling) expected fic lengths.

Bliss.

Her climax had started just as his teeth hit her skin, a slow, rolling feeling that washed over her, and it was utter, glorious bliss - the sort Rey had never felt before, and it consumed her in every way. Ben's bite was the completion of something she'd never known needed completing, and suddenly she was overcome with the fierce, clawing need to mirror his action.

She tightened her legs around him and tried to reach up to return the bite she so desperately wanted to give, but Ben seemed all too content to keep working his hips against her slowly, lazily licking at the spot he'd marked, only pausing to kiss around her neck, and to whisper lovely, beautiful words in her ear.

" _Mine."_

The way he spoke that word should have been criminal.

" _Sweet...little omega,_ " he murmured against her skin, raising gooseflesh with every syllable.

She closed her eyes and gasped, drowning in the sea of sensation that impatiently awaited her.

" _Mine,"_ he repeated. It was an extra bite, and extra touch of primal possessive Alpha seeping through, gracing her marathon of coiling touch and curl and warmth with a dearly caring cloak that made the moment all the more perfect. " _You're_ mine,  _Rey."_

Words came back to her mind - ones she'd hesitated to say before.

Three words. Eight letters, and every single one of them wanted nothing more than to fly out of her mouth. This time, she let them.

"I love you," Rey breathed, not giving herself time to be properly terrified at the words and the meaning they held.

His hips stuttered, and in an instant, Ben had gone from kissing across her clavicle, to being frozen solid over her. Nerves creeped up in her body as his head slowly rose, until he was staring down at her with an unreadable expression.

"You... _love_  me," he repeated numbly.

Well, it was  _far_  too late to take it back now, and after all, the man  _had_  just mated her, so unless he was truly a masochist, he wouldn't have bound himself to someone he didn't... _oh._

"You love me, too, don't you?" Rey asked in awe, her jaw dropping. Why she was so surprised, she really wasn't sure. Mating wasn't exactly something you did with a person you  _didn't_  love, or at least have intense feelings for, unless you'd made some terrible mistake during a heat and someone bit when they shouldn't have and-

"Yes," he uttered, interrupting her thoughts. Ben leaned further over her, and the corners of his lips turned up into a hint of a smile as he pressed them to hers, murmuring, "I love you."

Light bubbled in her chest, and she let out a surprised yelp as he rolled them over, managing not to slide out of her in the process. He laid back against her pillows, letting Rey take charge as she began to lift off of him, keeping the same relaxed pace he'd set. Her heart started pounding as he grinned, and tilted his chin to give her a better view of the reddened spot that she wanted to-

"I'm all yours, sweetheart," he said quietly, offering his neck to her.

On a whim, Rey reached up and carefully wrapped a small hand around the front of his neck, placing gentle pressure on the sides, and she hummed as his eyes darkened, and as a smirk grew across his lips. "You're playing with fire, little omega," he rumbled, and she shivered to feel the low vibrations as he spoke.

She winked, and put just a little extra pressure at the sides of his neck before picking up the pace, riding him fully as he groaned. His hands flew to her hips, and dug into her flesh as he took control, holding her in place as he thrust up into her over and over again.

Judging by her experiences with him in the previous few days, and the throaty noises leaving his mouth, Rey guessed he was getting close, so she took a deep breath, trying not to let his grip on her, or her own building orgasm overwhelm her, and she leaned down to complete what she'd set out to do.

At some point Ben's eyes had snapped shut, so when she clamped down hard on his gland, he let out a surprised cry, and then a groan as he came, buried deeply in her. She shuddered against his skin as another orgasm overtook her, and lapped at the fresh wound she'd created until she heard his breathing return to normal.

The hand that had been at his throat slid up to tangle in his hair, and she ran her nails gently over his scalp in an effort to comfort him. Ben turned to nuzzle his nose against hers, and gasped, "Rey,  _holy-_ ,  _wow_ , you're perfect for me."

"It's mutual," she sighed, rolling off of him so she could curl up at his side. "Very, very mutual."

* * *

A few hours later, Rey groaned and glanced over at her nightstand through bleary eyes, then reached up to silence the ringing phone. On second thought, she realized it was probably one of her friends, and checked to see that it was, indeed, Finn. Reluctantly, she grabbed it and picked it up, clutching it to her face as she snuggled back into bed.

She greeted him lazily, murmuring, "Hello."

"Hey, peanut, just wanted to check in - is everything okay?" he asked nervously.

Rey let out a content sigh as Ben rolled over to spoon around her, and said quietly, "Everything's perfect-"

Before she could say anything more, she heard Finn say, " _Alright, alright, you can talk to her._ Peanut, Poe wants to see if you're okay, so I'm going to put him on."

Poe's boisterous and friendly voice came on immediately, "Hey, we've been trying to text you and Ben, and we haven't heard from him-"

A tired and annoyed groan behind her interrupted. "Who is it?" Ben grumbled.

"Go back to sleep," she shushed, holding the phone away so as to not give away the shake in her voice; it wasn't her fault Ben was able to turn her world sideways just by breathing. "It's Poe, they just want to see if we're okay."

The voice on the line went silent, and after a few moments, Poe's voice came back with a low, suggestive, playful tone. "Are you  _in bed_ with my brother?"

She couldn't tell if he actually sounded surprised or was just hamming it up, and for some reason that annoyed her.

"I- I might be," Rey answered shyly. "What's up, Poe?"

She regretted her answer a bit as she heard him say, " _Finn, you were totally right._ " He came back to the phone and explained, "We were pretty sure he'd stuck around to uh... _help_...but when you guys never answered our messages we weren't sure."

"Right, well, we didn't answer your messages because-"

Suddenly Ben huffed and gestured for her to hand him the phone, and since she didn't  _exactly_  feel like explaining things herself, she handed it over to him gladly.

"Hey Poe," Ben said with a sarcastic, friendly tone, "sorry neither of us responded to the dozens of messages - we  _loved_ all the heat-related puns, by the way, so thanks for that. Look, not to be rude, but I've been a little busy here with my mate, and you just interrupted what was turning out to be a really nice and well-deserved nap, so what can we help you with?"

There was a brief moment of silence from the other end of the line, and then a minor explosion went off, and Ben held the receiver away from both their heads as the river flow of questions, exclamations, and expletives burst through the speaker.

Rey absolutely did not cackle as she watched Ben roll his eyes, and, after thirty seconds of loud noises and varying voices coming through, brought the speaker close and said, "Yes Poe, I  _did_  say  _mate_ , didn't I?"

After a moment his expression softened, and he said, "Oh, yeah, sure. We already missed our morning classes and I don't think we planned to go back to them until tomorrow-" he glanced over at Rey, and she nodded, "Yeah, we're skipping afternoon classes. 1 PM should be fine."

She rested back against his chest and cooed as he softly caressed her arm while he said goodbye to Poe. When he ended the call and put the phone on his nightstand he said, "How does pizza with Poe, Finn, and Rose sound? I guess they've all been pretty worried."

He placed his arm around her protectively, another one of his near subsonic noises of content beating through his chest. Almost like a purr, except deeper, and more powerful than any large cats, reserved entirely for her and the sound did wonderful and dangerous things to her nerves. Unbidden, Rey felt her own breath catch at the sound, at the whiff of his breath against her scalp, and the tremor of her own beating heart clutched against his body.

Ben Solo was an Alpha in every way, and he was dangerous. She'd recognized that since their first meeting, but she had badly misinterpreted the signals her own body had been sending at the time.

"Do we have to leave?" Rey moaned, burying her head in his chest, relishing in the sound and realizing at some point she'd started joining him in harmony. "It's so warm here."

Ben chuckled quietly and said, "I know, but I  _also_  like the idea of getting something to eat. We've been living off fruit and cheese for days. I think it's time for some real food."

Rey let out a final groan. "Okay. Fine."

* * *

It turned out to be incredibly lucky that they had almost an hour before meeting everyone, because neither of them were in a rush to leave the bed, and what  _should_  have been a simple shared shower turned into a twenty-minute make-out session. It probably would have turned into more, Rey thought with a bit of disappointment, if she hadn't been a bit sore from a solid three days of sex.

By the time they'd finally gotten out of the shower and dried off, they had less than ten minutes to leave, so Rey ran a brush through her hair and threw on sweats and a t-shirt that covered most of the bruises Ben had left. She glanced over and saw him putting on jeans and a tight black t-shirt, and frowned. "Did you bring a change of clothes with you?"

"I asked Hux to drop some stuff off yesterday," he explained. "You were sleeping when he came by. I hope you don't mind - I would have asked Poe, but-" he shrugged, "I figured since Hux is a beta it'd be less awkward I didn't-" he paused, and cringed, before saying awkwardly, "I didn't really like the idea of another alpha around, brother or not."

"I guess that makes sense," Rey nodded. "I don't mind. I'm just glad you had clean clothes." Then she paused, and added quietly, "You can leave some here, if you want."

When she looked up, he was smiling broadly at her, and he nodded. "I'd like that."

She smiled back, "So would I."

Ten minutes later, they'd walked into a local pizza parlor arm in arm and were waved over to a booth by Finn. Rey greeted the three of them and took off her hat and jacket, careful to shake the small amount of melting snowflakes off  _away_  from the table, and finally unwrapped her scarf.

 _That's_  when the table went silent.

Rey frowned, and shot Ben a confused look. He just shrugged and took off his coat too, and Rey heard someone at the table mutter, " _Holy shit."_

She glanced over at the table, where her three friends all wore identical shocked expressions. "What? What's up with you three?"

"You, uh- you really weren't kidding, huh?" Poe said, clearing his throat. "Shit, you guys really did mate each other."

"Oh," Rey blushed, "Uh...yeah." It looked like Ben had also turned a little red, and they didn't say anything as they slid into the same empty side of the booth, across from their friends.

Finn was gaping at them, and slowly closed his mouth, only opening it again to ask quietly, "Isn't it kinda... _permanent?_  What are you guys going to do?"

Her eyes narrowed, and they met Ben's similarly confused eyes. "What do you mean?"

That's when it clicked, for Rey. Rose had figured it out too, and was giving her a huge grin, but Rey realized Poe and Finn were still under the impression that her and Ben were... _less_  than civil toward each other. She let out a laugh, and turned to her mate, "Ben, I think they're under the impression we accidentally bit each other during my heat."

After a moment he snorted and chuckled, then reached out to tuck a lock of hair back behind her ear. She leaned into his touch, and smiled softly as he said, "So I guess they haven't noticed that I'm kinda in love with you?"

"Guess not," she laughed, "They probably haven't realized that it's mutual, either."

Someone from the other side of the table started choking on whatever they'd been drinking, and she turned to see Poe patting Finn on the back as he coughed. "I know, I know buddy, it's really fucking weird, I get it. It's weird to me, too."

Rey crossed her arms as she leaned against Ben and glared.

"Sorry, peanut," Finn said finally, "It's just- we all kept saying you both probably secretly had feelings for each other and  _sure_  we sorta had a running bet that you'd eventually hook up, but I guess I never thought you'd actually admit to the feelings. We  _definitely_  never guessed you'd end up mated to each other."

"We all thought you two would keep being idiots for a lot longer," Poe explained. Then he grinned at Rey, and said, "Well...welcome to the family."

* * *

Ben had nearly moved in with her almost as soon as her heat had ended, taking her words  _I don't want you to leave_  quite literally, and while Rey thought she normally would have been mildly annoyed to have someone sharing her space so frequently, it turned out to be incredible, and heartwarming. Once they'd torn down the wall they'd built between them with all of their competing, it was crystal clear that they made an exceptional match. They did almost everything together, and even the most mundane tasks like grocery shopping, had become adventures she looked forward to, as long as Ben was there with her.

Some tiny, insecure part of her had been a little worried that things would revert back to normal once they went back to classes, especially since he'd left her in bed that morning with nothing but a soft kiss to her forehead while she groaned about his alarm, but when she walked into their first post-heat class together, he gave her a breathtaking smile, greeting her with freshly-brewed coffee and a muffin. He'd saved her a seat right next to him.

Rey had sighed, settled into the seat next to him, and nuzzled her head against his shoulder before taking a sip from the travel mug he'd handed her. Then she'd noticed Professor Reynolds' eyes narrow at them, and she'd smirked slightly, realizing it was probably odd to see them interacting in a way that didn't involve snapping and correcting each other, or simply arguing in front of the entire class.

The man hadn't seemed too put-off (if anything, he'd seemed relieved), and he'd gotten to work passing back the graded midterms. A warm blush had risen up on her cheeks as Rey had realized those midterms were the reason she'd ended up kissing Ben in the first place, and when she'd glanced over shyly at him, he was bright red, likely thinking the same thing.

Papers landed on their desks as Professor Reynolds had grumbled, "Glad to see you're getting along," before returning to the front of the class to start the lecture.

Ben had just huffed, and then he'd started chuckling, and that's when Rey had realized he was looking at their graded papers. He'd grinned over at her, and said simply, "We tied."

She couldn't help but laugh, and that's when she'd known it would all work out.

* * *

Rey's bed (well, by then it was basically  _their_  bed) was incredible, and every time Ben slept in it, he found it more and more difficult to get out of. The sheets were wonderfully soft flannel, and when combined with heavy blankets, they made a perfect nest. In the cold of late December, Ben struggled to leave it, and often found himself sleeping whenever he had the opportunity.

He'd spent almost every single night since her heat in that bed (usually curled up around her), and the one night he'd spent in his own, away from her, they'd both been miserable. What was the point of giving each other space if neither of them wanted it, Ben wondered. After  _that_  awful experience, he'd started only going back to his apartment when he needed to check his mail, or pick something up. A surprising portion of his clothing was hanging in her closet, or folded in one of her dresser drawers, but he hadn't  _technically_  moved in.  _Yet._

"You planning to get up at some point?" she giggled.

Ben cracked an eye open and saw that she was standing with her back to him, rifling through her closet for something to wear, probably for the family Christmas party he was bringing her to the next day. She'd been to one of them before, and he'd been surprised then to see how well she'd fit it, but his heart leapt at the idea of officially introducing her to everyone as his  _mate_.

A small box was burning away in the nightstand she'd deemed his, and Ben had half a mind to think himself crazy for planning to use it so soon (after all, her heat had only been a month earlier), but...but it was  _Rey._  A month earlier wouldn't have been too soon. A  _year_  earlier wouldn't have been too soon. He was already her mate, and he wanted nothing more that to be hers in every way.

His mother had been beaming when he'd stopped by the house almost a week earlier to pick the little box up. She'd asked him a million questions about his new mate, and normally her enthusiasm would have been overwhelming, but Ben realized he could gush about Rey for days.

She was strong, brilliant, smart, and tough - everything he'd ever wanted in a mate, and everything he never thought he'd be lucky enough to find.

Rey looked back at him and snorted. "C'mon, Ben, you've got to get out of bed eventually."

"Not if you join me," he mumbled.

"I wish," she sighed contentedly, "But it's after ten...we should get going. Groceries won't buy themselves, you know."

He rolled over onto his stomach and buried his head into her pillow, and took a long, deep breath of her scent. It was a gorgeous, happy mix of sunshine and flowers, and fresh books, and-

Ben lifted his head and frowned down at the pillow. That...wasn't her scent. Or. It  _was_ , but-

"Everything okay?" she asked curiously, seeing his reaction. Rey walked over to sit next to him on the bed, and peered down at him. "Hey, Ben. What's wrong?"

Rey was close enough for him reach up, and pull her down into an embrace. He nestled into the crook of her neck and breathed in deeply. His eyes shot open wide as he realized what had changed.

He was  _definitely_  awake now.

"Hey, Ben, you're really starting to freak me out," she said nervously. "Is something wrong?"

Ben pulled back slowly after a moment, and felt a smile grow across his face as he breathed, "No, sweetheart. Nothing's wrong. Not wrong at all." He took a deep, calming breath and tried to settle the rapid pounding of his heart as he whispered, "It's...perfect."

She was radiant. Even more so than usual, and  _yes_ , he could tell now. Calmness settled across his chest as his eyes traveled over her lips and down her neck, to the beautiful still-healing bite mark she wore proudly, and he sighed happily.

He paused, and bit his lip as he smiled, and added, "I do think we need to call Maz's office, though."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Onfire's Tumblr](https://thebuildingsnotonfire.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [ Attack's Tumblr](https://attackofthedarkcurses.tumblr.com/)


	5. Flame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is basically just fluff! Enjoy - this one is officially done :) Thanks for bearing with us through our first attempt at A/B/O!

Rey was still reeling the next day, and paced in front of her closet in her underwear. She was supposed to be leaving with Ben in two hours for his family's holiday dinner, and she  _still_  hadn't come to a decision on what to wear.

The previous twenty-four hours had been quite a whirlwind as Poe helped Ben move the rest of his stuff into Rey's apartment - originally they'd gone back and forth on whose to move into, until they realized half of his things had somehow already moved in anyway, and after  _that_  realization, it had seemed considerably easier to simply finish the job.

Of course, Ben hadn't let her lift so much as a single book. She'd been frustrated, and had some  _words_  with him about his newfound protectiveness, but once she'd seen the concerned, adorable wide-eyed, begging look he'd given her, Rey had just sighed, and agreed. It was  _really_  hard to say no to that face.

As if Ben could read her mind, he spoke up from the doorway, "Hey, sweetheart, I'm sorry about yesterday...I'm trying to get it under control, I promise." He paused, and added, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, I got you something to wear."

Rey blinked. "Oh thank  _god._ You really are amazing, you know that?"

"You  _do_  say it a lot," he grinned. He leaned down and caught her lips in a soft kiss, wrapping his arms around her in a close hug. She sighed into him, and basked in his warm, safe embrace. She'd never been one who needed taking care of, but...it was  _nice_.

Rey pulled away just far enough to look up at him and she nodded, "And about the protectiveness. I know. I'm not mad, exactly. It's just going to take some getting used to, and you're probably going to hear me complain a lot. At least for a little while." She paused, "The idea of someone wanting to take care of me is a little new."

"Well I  _definitely_  want to take care of you," Ben said in a deep, gravelly voice. He reached around to clutch at her ass, and lifted her clear off the floor. As this sort of behavior had become fairly common in the last month or so, Rey just laughed and gripped his shoulders, letting him carry her to their bed. Ben set her down on the edge of it carefully, then knelt in front of her, kissing up her thigh. He hesitated and ran fingers along the edges of her panties and murmured, "Pick a safeword,  _little omega._ "

Rey sucked in a breath at the title, and asked curiously, "Why?"

He grinned, and pressed a kiss to her still cotton-covered mound, and said, "Because I'm gonna eat you out until I get to hear you scream it."

She blushed at his words, and cleared her throat. "How about  _Alpha?_ "

"I'm not sure about that one," Ben huffed, and explained with dry amusement, "I think you'll be saying that anyway."

"Why don't we find out?" Rey asked, a wicked smile on her face. "If you can get me to say it before I'm ready to safeword, I'll...I don't know-" she shrugged, and then hummed as an idea came to mind, "I'll stop complaining about you being so protective."

After a moment, Ben bit back a smile and nodded. "Okay, sweetheart. It's a deal."

* * *

Rey bounced on her heels, tugging at the silly ugly Christmas sweater Ben had gotten her. Her anxiety only increased as she heard the doorbell ring. She felt herself shiver, but that had nothing to do with the snow falling and everything to do with her nerves. It wasn't the first time she'd spent a holiday with the Solo-Organas - the last time she'd been there it had been on Poe and Finn's insistence, and her and Ben had dramatically avoided each other (or snapped at each other) the entire time, much to his family's entertainment.

Attending Christmas dinner as Ben Solo's girlfriend and mate was another matter entirely, and she couldn't help but think of how much more calm she should have been, given the fact that he'd spent almost an hour with his head between her legs before they'd left. Apparently there were still some things even orgasms couldn't fix, but Ben had seemed to think it was worth trying, and she'd had no intention of stopping him.

Ben glanced over at her and must have sensed her anxiety, because he gave her a sympathetic smile, and said softly, "Hey, don't worry, you've already met most of them, remember? I think the only people here you haven't met are Maz and Chewie, and you talked to Maz over the phone, so you've basically already met. Her and Chewie are kinda like an aunt an uncle to me, and Rey, they're all going to love you."

"What if they don't?" she asked, biting her lip. She got a quick break from her nerves as she looked over and smirked as she was reminded that he  _also_  wore a goofy-looking matching reindeer-themed sweater. "I'm not really good at all this  _family_  stuff. What if they don't like me?"

After a moment's pause, he leaned down to kiss her forehead, and murmured against her skin, "Then it's their loss. I love you, we'll have our own family, and everyone else can bite me for all I care."

"No they can't. I already did that." Rey snorted, and let out a giggle, her eyes connecting to the well-healed mark on his skin. Every time she saw it she felt tingles down her spine, and she was usually overcome with the intense urge to lick it. 

"Okay, yeah, that was a poor choice of words," he chuckled. "But seriously, Rey, they're going to love you. How could they not? Mom's always wanted a daughter, and-"

The door opened before he could finish his sentence. A massive smile grew on the woman's face, and judging by what she'd heard from Ben, Rey guessed that the woman was Maz.

"So he  _did_  smarten up!" the woman cackled, glancing at Rey's neck. "I had a feeling I'd be meeting you. If not now, then uh..." the woman winked, "maybe soon, huh?"

Rey blushed, and grinned, saying, "Hi, Maz."

"C'mon in, kids," she said, stepping back to hold the door open.

As she and Ben walked into the old house's massive entry, she heard Maz say under her breath to Ben, "You're right, she's pretty. Glad you took my advice."

"Maz," he grumbled, sounding like a kid whose parent had just embarrassed them in front of their friends, "Just...do me a favor and keep her away from the baby pictures, okay?"

_Baby pictures?_

Obviously Rey's feelings for him were decidedly less antagonistic then they'd been a couple of months prior, but something in her preened with evil delight at the thought of seeing Ben's embarrassing baby pictures.

When Ben wasn't looking she flashed Maz a conspiratorial smile, and when the woman returned her expression with another wink, Rey's nerves settled.

Yeah. She'd fit in  _just fine_.

 

* * *

Ben groaned as his mother dropped a giant bowl of washed potatoes in front of him.

"Peel."

He sighed, and said, "If this is what I get for getting here early, I'll be sure to show up right on time next year."

Leia chuckled, and smiled at him wryly. "Would you rather be with your father and Chewie? I think they've spent the last hour showing Rey the Falcon, and if we don't interrupt, they'll probably keep her busy with shop-talk all day."

"That's different," he said dryly, "she  _likes_  cars. Figures. I just  _had_  to pick a mate who has the same hobbies as Dad."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Rey that lovely girl that came by with Poe and Finn two Christmases ago? The one that you spent the entire time arguing with?"

Ben raised an eyebrow at his mother, knowing damn well she already knew the answer to that question.

But then Maz piped up and said, "Oh, she's  _that_  Rey? Well that clears up a lot. Isn't that the girl he's been bitching about since his freshman year?  _I can't figure out what she wants, Maz,_ " the woman mocked, " _She's infuriating!_  Ha! Bet ya feel different now, huh, kid?"

Leia chortled, "Like father, like son, right?"

"And you wonder why I don't bring women home," Ben groaned. He put the potato he'd been peeling down on the counter and huffed, only half-seriously glaring at the women.

His mother let out another laugh at that and said, "Oh  _please_ , you never bring any women home because you've spent the last few years crazy about one woman while you were trying to convince yourself that you hated her." She looked fondly over at him and shook her head, "We're not blind, you know. You and Rey might have been, but that doesn't mean the rest of us were."

Ben sighed dramatically, knowing he'd lost the argument. After all, they weren't wrong, and there really wasn't any point in arguing it.

"Well kid," Maz said finally, "You gonna be smart enough to hold on to her?"

He hesitated for a moment, and then gave them a small, knowing smile. After a quick glance to make sure nobody else was around, he cleared his throat and fumbled around in his pocket to pull out a small box, placing it down on the counter between the women.

Leia smiled broadly, "Oh, I  _knew_  it! I had a feeling when I gave it to you that I'd see her wearing it before New Years."

Ben turned red, and mumbled shyly, "I haven't even asked yet. I thought I'd ask today, but I don't know for sure that she'll say yes. It  _is_ really soon. I mean,  _sure_  we've known each other for years, but we've only been together since just after Thanksgiving, and-."

"Kid, you're mated." Maz interrupted. "As far as biology is concerned, you may as well be married already. I don't think she'll have trouble with a ring and a piece of paper saying it. Not if she was okay with a massive bite-mark on her neck, and uh... _everything_  else."

He hesitated, wondering if the woman knew a lot more than she was letting on, but he just smiled, and nodded. "I hope you're right."

Maz smirked, and said innocently, "Might want to warn the girl that twins run in the family."

"I'm sure it'll be a while before that comes up," Leia frowned, "Best not to scare her."

Thankfully, Ben had the good sense to turn and pretend to be looking for something in the fridge before his mother noticed the redness of his cheeks.

* * *

Rey had spent nearly an hour hanging on Han Solo's every word, and she'd finally joined everyone else in the kitchen when Poe and Finn arrived, sheepishly carrying a few store-bought pies. Finn gave her a friendly wave, but Poe rushed over and swept her up into a massive hug, leaving her feet dangling in the air.

"Poe!" she shrieked, just before breaking out into giggles. "What are you doing? We  _just_  saw each other yesterday!"

He laughed and set her back down, smiling. "Just still happy you're officially part of the family."

_Family_.

She never really thought she'd have one of those, and now, everything she'd ever wanted had been thrust in her direction, and she was completely overcome with joy. Han and Leia had welcomed her warmly, Maz was clearly going to fill the  _sort-of-crazy aunt_  role, Poe had already been kind of a big-brother, and Ben...well, Ben was  _so_  much more than a boyfriend. He'd quickly become her partner, and her mate, in every sense of the word.

"I'm happy, too," Rey blushed, snapping herself from her thoughts, "But I'm not sure I'd call it  _official_ , exactly..."

"Oh, I'm sure it will be," he hummed, "Plus, the crazy-huge bite on your neck says differently," Poe glanced at it and whistled. "Damn, he  _really_  went all-in with that thing, huh? Y'know, most  _polite_  alphas go for smaller, more subtle bites."

Rey shot Ben a look over Poe's shoulder and said dryly, "Does that really sound like Ben to you?"

"Fair point," Poe nodded. Then his eyes grew wide with excitement as he asked, "Ooh, has anyone shown you his baby pictures yet? You  _need_  to see them. His ears-"

"Don't even think about it," Ben warned. He was leaning against the entry to the kitchen, arms crossed, and with an amused glint in his eyes. "And do me a favor. Hug all you want, but keep her feet on the ground,  _please._  I really don't need you injuring my mate. I swear, if you lift her off the floor again you're going to give me a heart-attack."

Both her and Poe looked over at him with mischievous grins and Ben finally rolled his eyes and shook his head. Rey laughed and walked around the large kitchen island to get to him, nuzzling at his side while he wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her forehead. "Hey sweetheart," he said softly, "want to take a walk outside with me before dinner? I was hoping we could get some fresh air and maybe talk."

She didn't miss the fact that Poe nearly bounced up and down at Ben's suggestion, and her eyes narrowed, but she finally shrugged and took Ben's hand as he led her out of the room.

* * *

Poe hesitated as he watched them leave the kitchen, and craned his neck, listening for the sound of the front door closing. When he heard it, he called out, "Okay, they're gone." He glanced over at his mother and said, "So I didn't misread things, right? He's definitely asking today, isn't he?"

"He is if he knows what's good for him," Leia snorted. "Actually, I'm pretty sure he's asking now, on their walk." She reached down and opened the wine chiller she'd insisted on installing into one of the kitchen cabinets and pulled out a bottle. "Should we start celebrating early? I think we all know she'll say yes."

Finn was busy watching something out the kitchen window, and finally said, "Yeah, he's totally asking. They're sitting on the bench and he keeps playing with something in his coat pocket." Then he muttered, "Dude is  _not_  subtle. How has she not noticed?"

"Oh, I think they're both a bit more subtle than you give them credit for. I think those two could probably surprise you," Maz cackled, "And, you're all terrible. Leave the kids alone, it'll work out. Trust me, they'll be fine."

Han poked his head into the kitchen, and laughter filled the room as he said, "Better view from the living room windows. Oh, and who had money on December for the engagement?"

"I did! Might have lost the first bet, but I  _totally_  called this one," Poe piped up, joining Finn at the window.

It had been  _weird_  seeing them together for the first week or so, but at one point when Rey had invited them all over for a game night, Poe had walked into the kitchen to help Ben and Rey carry takeout boxes to the table, and instead he'd ended up seeing something private, and unbelievably heartwarming. His brother had just been hugging her, holding her tightly, as if he was afraid to let her go, and Poe had only stuck around long enough to hear them murmur  _I love you_ s before he ducked out and returned to the rest of the group.

Poe smiled at the memory and accepted a fist-bump from his mate, glancing outside just in time to see Rey's face light up. He watched her nod excitedly and nearly climb into Ben's arms, and he cracked a smile, muttering under his breath, "Told her it'd be official," before he turned his back to claim a celebratory glass of wine.

"'Bout damn time," Han grumbled, waving off the wine in favor of something a bit harder.

Poe chuckled and said, "Yeah, who knew all it'd take was Phas and I trying to lock them in their teacher's office? Y'know, I really had my doubts when she suggested it, but I've gotta say, it worked a  _lot_  better than any of us expected." He sighed contentedly, and said, "It's too bad we're out of things to bet on. This last bet was pretty lucrative for me."

Maz smiled mysteriously, "I'm sure you'll find something new to wager on."

* * *

Rey's chest was nearly bursting with happiness as she curled up in Ben's arms on the bench they'd settled on out in the Solo-Organa's backyard. She broke the peaceful silence that had fallen over them with giggles. "I can't  _believe_  you thought I might not say yes."

"Well," Ben shrugged, and she noticed a pink tint to his cheeks that probably wasn't from the cold, "I was nervous."

She smiled up and him and shook her head in disbelief before resting it back on his chest. Then she said quietly, "So, do you think they know?"

"Maz definitely does," he admitted, "Though, we probably should have considered that before we scheduled our first appointment with her office. She's made a few comments, but she won't say anything," he reassured her. "Doctor-patient confidentiality, and all."

Rey paused, and bit her lip. "Ben, that's not...that's not why you asked, right?"

It took him a moment to make sense of her question, but when he realized what she was asking, he looked down at her with mild horror written across his face. "What?  _No._  No, of  _course_  not. I asked because I wanted to, I promise." He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers gently, tangling his hand in her hair. He murmured against her mouth, "I got the ring from my mother almost a week ago - before we found out. Feel better?"

She sighed with relief, the penultimate concern on her mind alleviated. There was just one more to go.

"So...this isn't all too much for you? Because it  _is_  a lot, all at once. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. I mean, I really should have realized during that phone call with Maz, and it's not as if high school health classes don't hammer it into your head about having higher chances during heat, so I know I completely dropped the ball here-"

"Hey," Ben interrupted gently. "Relax, Rey. Even if it's just for my own sanity, don't stress yourself out,  _please_. If anyone  _dropped the ball_ , I'd say we share the blame, but I don't think there's any blame to dole out. Sure, the timing isn't ideal, but…" he sighed, and looked down at her with the brightest, happiest smile on his face, "that doesn't mean it's not a good thing. It's- it's amazing."

He must have noticed her shiver, because before Rey could get another word in he'd gathered her in his arms and stood up, walking quickly in the direction of the house.

"Ben!" she laughed, "I'm just a little cold. I'll live."

"Ah ah, I won the deal earlier. Just...humor me, okay?" he winced, "Please? I'll try to keep it under control - I really will, but I can't promise anything." He huffed, and added, "I hate to say it, but if you thought I was protective a month ago-"

Rey shook her head playfully and interrupted him with a kiss, then whispered, "I love you."

"Yeah," Ben sighed, smiling down at her, "I love you, too, Rey."

She thought for a moment and let out a soft laugh, and when she noticed his curious expression she explained, "I'm just really glad we made that bet. The one about our midterm grades, I mean."

"Oh," he huffed, "Yeah, I think we both won that one. Hopefully our kid never asks how we started dating, but I guess it _is_ a funny story."

Rey laughed, and let out a happy hum. "True. I think you're right, though - we both won."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Onfire's Tumblr](https://thebuildingsnotonfire.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [ Attack's Tumblr](https://attackofthedarkcurses.tumblr.com/)


End file.
